This invention relates to a flotation bath, more particularly, to a device wherein the user remains floating in a decubitus dorsal position in a slightly warm high-density saline solution.
In this type of floating baths, having a great percentage of salt in the salt solution, such buoyancy is achieved due to the density of the bath liquid, in which the user, lying on his or her back achieves a high level of relaxation.
It has been proved that floating alleviates stress, anxiety and chronic pain.
Said type of therapeutic floating baths, in which the user introduces himself in a housing that has the salt solution in its lower part and a cover in the upper part, is already known in the art. In some cases said cover is removable.
The salt solution is a mixture of water and Epsom salt (Magnesium sulfate).
One of the drawbacks of this type of floating bath is, on one part, the resistance from the user to remain inside a closed housing, especially if the user suffers from some level of claustrophobia, and, on the other part, the resistance to remain partially submerged in a salt solution that has been used before by other persons.
By means of the device of the present invention the user will not resist nor reject this type of bath as he fills the bath with the solution when he wants to take a bath.
Also each time the tank is emptied and refilled the solution is filtered.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,505,847 a bath that circulates and recycles a multiple mineral salt solution is disclosed but in this case the solution, which is not a high density salt solution, is not kept slightly warm in a reservoir for further immediate use and neither is heated while the user takes a bath as in present invention.
German patent DE 3932 199 A1 discloses a bath with a reservoir and a sterilization device but it doesn""t mention that it is appropriate for a high-density salt solution floating bath or that the solution is kept slightly warm for immediate use thereof.
European patent Nr 0 300 639 from Inax Corporation discloses a shower bath with two tanks with cold and hot water respectively and a mixing valve responsive to a signal from a regulator to control the temperature and pressure of the water flowing from the tanks to the shower, something that can""t be done with a high-density saline solution.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,150,665 a heater for liquid containers is disclosed, in which a thermally conductive plate is in direct communication through hollow extensions with liquid in the container, but this heater arrangement can""t be applied in the arrangement of subject invention as the flow of the high-density saline solution through the hollow extensions is very difficult.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,385,724 discloses a water temperature sensing and control apparatus for a spa or hot water tub always full in which a water pump continually operates to circulate the water from the tub through a sensing bulb connected to switching means that open or close the energy for the water heating element, while in the flotation bath of this invention the solution is kept warm in a reservoir and is transferred to the tank when the user will take a bath.
The main object of the present invention is a floating bath including a tank for containing a high-density salt solution. The novelty of the invention is that said tank has means for the heating of the solution, and in the lower part of said tank a liquid extraction pipe, including a pump and a filter, is engaged to empty the tank. The outlet of said extraction pipe being. connected to a reservoir, the reservoir also having means for heating the solution, the outlet in the bottom of the reservoir being also connected to a filling pipe that includes a valve, the outlet of the filling pipe being connected to said tank to fill it with said solution.
In a preferred embodiment of the invention the pump in said extraction pipe is turned on only when the solution is to be transferred to the reservoir.
In a preferred embodiment of the invention said reservoir includes means for the heating of the salt solution which is connected to a thermostat for the regulation of the temperature of the solution, and a device to control the level of said solution so that the quantity of the solution doesn""t go beyond a predetermined value.
In a further embodiment of the invention said valve is in electrical communication with said pump so when it is closed it activates said pump to empty the solution in the tank and send it to the reservoir.
In the aforementioned preferred embodiment of the invention said reservoir is placed above the level of the solution of the tank.